• A best practice for all imaging leaders
working on a management development
program should be to invest enough time
to complete a detailed plan that sets goals,
objectives, step targets, landmarks, and a
timetable for their achievements.

• Keys to success for a management development program include no surprises,
active participation, and preparation by
both the facilitator and the managers
involved.

• A successful management team will have
trained staff and lean processes mapped
and documented, as well as be comfortable in a coaching, delegating, and consensus management style.

In this series, the key steps in
revisiting, revamping, and revitalizing
(or R3ing) a diagnostic imaging business
plan have been discussed. In the second
article the discussion was expanded into
organization and structure and the third
article explored managing with financial
statements, balanced scorecards, and
dashboards. Now, in this final article,
the discussion will move to management
development programs. The concepts reviewed in the first three articles are of limited value if the management team lacks
the confidence and knowledge for effective implementation. Leading Six Sigma
teams and driving process improvement
projects, making management decisions
using balanced scorecards, and developing the nose for working with financial
statements are some of the keys to facilitating the final steps on the journey to
achieving R3 enlightenment!

Before any management developmentprogram can be developed, the imagingdirector needs to have a plan that setsgoals, objectives, step targets, landmarks,and a timetable for their achievements.Without a timetable and the discipline toachieve landmark achievements, any planis just a daydream. A best practice for allimaging leaders working on a manage-ment development program should be toinvest enough time to complete a detailedplan, which is crucial given that a goodmanagement development programmight easily stretch for two or three yearswith landmarks along the way. Think ofthese as stepping stones along the devel-opment pathway for senior staff. So, ifyou are planning a management develop-ment program, the first step is to make aplan. The first question to answer in thatplan is: “Why am I doing this?” or “Whatwill be different when the developmentplan is completed?” One seemingly fre-quent answer to that question is that thebandwidth between top performers andbottom performers in the department istoo wide and managers need to uplift ex-pectations and motivate and coach staffto raise the bar, elevate individual levelsof performance, and achieve increasedproductivity.

Development Plan

Why initiate a management development
program? The most common drivers are
shown in Box 1. Of these, the most frequently seen are to improve managers’
confidence and skills and to help drive
improved results. Expect to see reorganization and change management as increasingly common drivers as the impact